Gospels, Jesus, and Christian Origins

Collected Essays

Representing five decades of research on the gospels, Jesus, and Christian origins, this collection of historical-critical essays explores topics such as demythologizing, “son of man,” and the synoptic problem, to name just a few. Includes a critical analysis of ways in which scholars have attempted to recover the historical Jesus.

Contents

Preface Abbreviations

Part One: Methodological Issues

Chapter 1: The Quest for the Historical Jesus: A Discussion of Methodology Chapter 2: The Kingdom of the Son of Man and the Kingdom of the Father in Matthew: An Exercise in RedaktionsgeschichteChapter 3: A Method for Identifying Redactional Passages in Matthew on Functional and Linguistic Grounds Chapter 4: The Lukan Nativity Story and Isaiah 7:14: Some Additional Evidence for Intertextuality Chapter 5: Demythologizing and Christology

Part Two: Relationships among the Canonical Gospels

Chapter 6: An Unexamined Presupposition in Studies of the Synoptic Problem Chapter 7: “Nazareth”: A Clue to Synoptic Relationships? Chapter 8: Martha and Mary in the Third and Fourth Gospels: An Exercise in Source Criticism Chapter 9: The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew and in John

Part Three: The Son of Man

Chapter 10: The Origin of the Son of Man Concept as Applied to Jesus Chapter 11: The Son of Man: Some Recent Developments Chapter 12: The Son of Man Question and the Synoptic Problem Chapter 13: John 1:43-51 and “The Son of Man” in the Fourth Gospel

Part Four: Special Topics in the Gospels

Chapter 14: Κύριος and ’Επιστάτης as Translations of Rabbi/RabbouniChapter 15: Jesus and the Tax Collectors

William O. Walker, Jr. (Ph.D., Duke University) is the Jennie Farris Railey King Professor Emeritus of Religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He has served as author, co-author, editor, associate editor, or assistant editor of a number of books, including Paul and His Legacy (2014), Interpolations in the Pauline Letters (2001) and The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (1996). He has also published more than sixty articles on New Testament topics. He is a member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association of America, and the Westar Institute’s Acts Seminar.

“The erudition and clarity of Walker’s scholarship is without question ... a fitting tribute to a gifted interpreter of the gospels.”—Review of Biblical Literature

“In this second volume of William Walker’s collected essays, we scan a half century of Gospel research, exploring some of the field’s knottiest problems through the eyes of a meticulous craftsman who is, above all, a master teacher. We are equally amazed by Walker’s patience in analyzing details, the clarity of his explanations, and the honesty with which he discerns what we can and cannot know and what, finally, is important.”—Wayne Meeks, Yale University

“These meticulously argued essays, ranging over many aspects of the NT gospels, address vitally important questions of history and interpretation. Walker’s arguments are always impressively presented and remain essential reading for all serious students of Jesus, the gospels and earliest Christianity.”—Christopher Tuckett, University of Oxford, UK